Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today urged
\nall concerned to come up with thought provoking reform ideas to bring more
\nremittances in the country for enriching the foreign currency reserve.<\/p>\n
“More and more people are going abroad, but remittances do not commensurate
\nwith the number of expatriates going abroad. Remittances could have reached
\n$30 billion a year,” he said.<\/p>\n
Kamal also said, “Let us take necessary measures to augment the remittance,
\npursuing both fiscal and monetary policies. I simply request you to kindly
\ncome up with your thought provoking reform ideas, to bring more remittances.”<\/p>\n
The Finance Minister was addressing the Public Financial Management (PFM)
\nSummit’23 as the chief guest held at a city hotel jointly organized by the
\ngovernment of Bangladesh and the World Bank.<\/p>\n
Highlighting the immense need of inward remittance under the current
\ncircumstances, he said inflow of remittances solely can solve the country’s
\nproblem of foreign exchange and eventually other macroeconomic problems
\narising from this sector.<\/p>\n
World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh Abdoulaye Seck and practice
\nmanager, governance global practice of the South Asia region of the World
\nBank Hisham Waly spoke as special guests chaired by Secretary of the Finance
\nDivision Dr Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder.<\/p>\n
Finance Division additional secretary Shirajun Noor Chowdhury made a power-
\npoint presentation on the overview, successes and challenges of PFM reform in
\nBangladesh while a video documentary showcasing key PFM achievements as well
\nas a short film on the success stories of the government pension reform were
\nalso screened.<\/p>\n
Noting that remittances have always played a vital role in the country’s
\neconomy, the Finance Minister said that the inward remittances have increased
\nfrom $7.9 billion to $24.3 billion after introducing 2 percent incentives.<\/p>\n
“But, we’ve failed to keep this momentum. So far, 10 million Bangladeshi
\npeople are working abroad, and the number is growing every year,” he added.<\/p>\n
The Finance Minister said Bangladesh has achieved several milestones of
\npublic finance reforms under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh
\nHasina.<\/p>\n
Highlighting some of the important macroeconomic achievements of the
\ngovernment over the last 15 years, Kamal said Bangladesh is now the 35th
\nlargest economy in the world while the GDP size increased four and a half
\ntimes, amounting to $454 billion while it was only $91 billion in 2008.<\/p>\n
He said on average, the GDP growth rate was 6.6 percent during 2009 to 2022
\nperiod which was 5.8 percent in the year 2002 to 2008.<\/p>\n
“Likewise, our per capita national income increased 4 times from $760 to
\n$2,765,” he said, adding that 23.8 million new jobs at home and jobs for
\nanother 7.1 million people in abroad were created over the last 14 years.<\/p>\n
World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh Abdoulaye Seck noted that strong
\npublic financial management systems ensure effective and efficient service
\ndelivery and good governance.<\/p>\n
“This is now more important than ever as we are confronted with an array of
\ncomplex and unprecedented global challenges, including the ongoing
\nrepercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russian invasion in Ukraine, climate
\nchange, and others. In the face of these challenges, the role of effective
\npublic financial management has never been more vital,” he added.<\/p>\n
He said the Theme of the Summit “Institutionalization of PFM reform” could
\nnot be more pertinent, given the challenging times all could find themselves
\ntoday. “This summit serves as a testament to the collective commitment we
\nshare in strengthening public financial management systems worldwide,” he
\nadded.<\/p>\n
He went on saying, “We have seen firsthand in Bangladesh how stronger and
\nmodern PFM systems were able to respond effectively when the pandemic broke
\nout. The PFM Summit 2023 serves as a platform to recognize Bangladesh’s
\naccomplishments in the realm of Public Financial Management over the past
\nthree decades and discuss reforms needed to address existing and emerging
\nchallenges.”<\/p>\n
Seck said, “As we recognize the country’s progress in PFM system, we also
\nneed to acknowledge the persistent gaps and the urgent need for reform.”<\/p>\n
The World Bank Country Director also mentioned six critical dimensions which
\nare – transparency and accountability; inclusivity; sustainability;
\ninnovation and technology; capacity building and global Partnerships.<\/p>\n
“As we embark on this ambitious journey, let us remember that our goal is not
\njust effective PFM, but improved lives for all citizens. PFM reforms must
\ntranslate into better public services, reduced poverty, and enhanced and
\ninclusive economic opportunities,” he hoped.<\/p>\n
World Bank practice manager, governance global practice for the South Asia
\nRegion Hisham Waly, said that there is a need to have a sustainable PFM in
\nBangladesh for a sustainable future.<\/p>\n
Earlier, five former finance secretaries at a session shared their
\nexperiences on the institutionalization of the PFM reform. They are Zakir
\nAhmed Khan, Dr Mohammad Tareque, Fazle Kabir, Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury and
\ncurrent central bank governor Abdur Rouf Talukder. Suraiya Zannat, lead
\ngovernance specialist, financial management, the World Bank team leader,
\nSPFMS, moderated the session.<\/p>\n
The Finance Minister handed over crests to them as they were honored as
\n‘reform champions’ in PFM.<\/p>\n
They suggested for developing skilled human resources in the PFM management,
\nintroducing internal audit in all government institutions, sustainability in
\nthe PFM, giving a big thinking in terms of restructuring the civil service.<\/p>\n
Planning Division Secretary Satyajit Karmakar, Director General of CPTU
\nMohammed Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury, NBR Member Masud Sadique, additional
\nsecretary to the Cabinet Division Dr Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain, Director
\nGeneral of Financial Management Academy (FIMA) Abul Kalam Azad spoke as key
\nPFM stakeholders in a session moderated by Finance Division additional
\nsecretary Rehana Perven.<\/p>\n
(BSS)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today urged all concerned to come up with thought provoking reform ideas to bring more remittances in the country for enriching the foreign currency reserve. “More and more people are going abroad, but remittances do not commensurate with the number of expatriates going abroad. Remittances could have reached $30 billion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8307,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8305\/revisions\/8307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}